The goal here is the line of
increase. To be moving along that line should be our daily endeavor.
Our proper utterance should be, "I was never so good as to-day, and I
hope never to be so bad again."
XI
But when we have seen how slender is our actual perfection, how slight
must be reckoned the attainment of personality at any moment, we are
brought face to face with the profound problem of its possible extent.
How far can the self be developed? Infinitely? Is each one of us an
infinite being? I will not say so. I do not like to make a statement
which runs beyond my own experience. But confining myself to this, let
us see what it will show.
When at any time I seek to perfect myself, does my attainment of any
grade of improvement prevent or further another step? All will agree
that it simply opens a new door. Perhaps I am seeking to withdraw from
habits of mendacity, and beginning to tell the truth. Then every time
I tell the truth I shall discover more truth to tell. And will this
process ever come to an end? I have nothing to do with "evers." I can
only say that each time I try it, advance is more possible, not less
possible. In the personal life there is, if I may say so, no provision
for checkage. As I understand it, in the animal life there is such
provision. In my first chapter I was pointing out the difference
between extrinsic and intrinsic goodness; and I said that the table's
entering into use and holding objects on its top tended to destroy it,
though we might imagine a magic table in which every exercise of
function would be preservative.
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